The present invention is directed to a system for effecting communications between a computing device and a plurality of supporting peripheral devices associated with the computing device.
Prior art systems for effecting such communications involve a bus controller apparatus which polls peripheral devices, either sequentially or individually by respective addresses. The bus controller apparatus contains sufficient and appropriate circuitry to accommodate the different timing requirements which may exist among the various multiple peripherals communicating with the bus controller over a data bus. Generally, a feedback signal is sent by the peripheral device over the communicating data bus to the bus controller indicating completion of the operation in which the respective peripheral device is involved.
The present invention comprises a bus controller for polling individual respective peripheral devices by address and provides for each respective peripheral device to have an associated feedback generator circuit. Each respective peripheral device stores therein appropriate operational parameters for executing its intended operations. As the bus controller interrogates the peripheral devices by address, the peripheral devices respond by supplying the operational parameters necessary to effect operation.
By such a configuration, providing for each respective peripheral device to store therein its appropriate operational parameters, the bus controller is relieved of having to store a wide variety of operational parameters. Therefore, the preferred embodiment of the present invention is amenable to a modular system design, which is easily extendable to accommodate a greater number of peripheral devices.